When the release of his alternate take on The Jungle Book (now called Mowgli) was delayed, mo-cap performance pioneer Andy Serkis decided to fill his newly-emptied directorial slot with this: The moving biopic of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield, amazing), the polio-stricken father of his pal and producing partner Jonathan.

If you’re expecting this to be an uplifting, turn-that-frown-into-a-smile story, a la The Theory of Everything, you aren’t wrong. But it also introduces an obscure fact: Cavendish played a part in co-creating a groundbreaking respirator-fitted wheelchair with inventor Teddy Hall (the wonderful Hugh Bonneville), whose own story deserves to be told someday. (***)